So what we’re talking about today is going to be what I like to call walking the walk. The that I see that working is having congruity between what you say to people and what you actually do with your life. Now, this can take a number of different angles just based on what domain you’re in.
For example, the classic one that always used to make me roll my eyes a number of years ago is when my wife and I had our kids, and people without kids would start giving us parenting advice. For example, I frequently heard statements such as: “I would never just put on the television to keep my child entertained.” To which, I would say to myself: Well, when you’re on your 50th consecutive day of fewer than 4 hours of sleep, you’d be surprised what you’ll do.
But what I think walking to walk really comes down to is that if you want to have real authority with what you say, not even just real authority that other people recognize, but real authority that you recognize. In other words, if you want to really be the kind of person where what you say is really meaningful, particularly if you were leading a team, which if you’re running a business and you will either be leading a team of followers who are an influencer or a team of leading a team, they need to be walking the walk.
There has to be congruence between what you say and what you do. Otherwise, you’re just an empty suit. You’re just, as I call it, a career coward. You’re just one of those people who says things that are expedient but you don’t back it up. And there are so many people in the world who don’t back it up. Just about every politician doesn’t back it up in some way or another, at some point or another.
And that’s the hard part … walking the walk is tough. It takes a lot of work. But that’s the point. You have to do the work. If you are going to be that kind of leader, that transformational leader, that value-obsessed leader, a value boss, as I’m fond of calling it, you have to do the work. You have to force yourself to do the work. And there’s no trick, there’s no hack, there’s no way around it. You just have to force yourself to do the work.
The good part is that once you do that, you will permanently separate yourself from other people because there are so few people who are really willing to do the work, who will stay congruent between their talk and their actions.
I know this is very different from traditional bias to let people like okay, well, here’s the five hacks to be successful right away. This is something that you have to do consistently. But I think the message of today’s mail is to just do the work, put in the time and you will be rewarded because there are not that many people who are following suit.
